Beta virtuemart 1.5 released

The new VirtueMart version 1.5 has plenty of new features and behaviours. We did not intend to add new features, but it was necessary to reorganize some old features and in the process some new ones were created. For more information please look in the Announcements Forum. http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=78259.0

Key features:- in general *we use now the default joomla MVC pattern*.

- the shop is now vendor based and multivendor capable.

- there is a new plugin system working within Joomla which makes plugin writing for VirtueMart similar to plugin writing for Joomla.

- a new Template system working within Joomla.

- the joomla language file system is used

- a new cart, which is now an true object and holds the user information in a session.

- a completly new calculation system, with a calculation class doing all the work.

- multidiscounts added.

- rule system for tax and discounts added.

- price generation based on costprice (with currency exchange).

- there are now three configurable paths for the pictures of the shop and products.

- new permission object. We did a step to enhance the security, using a permission object.

- new user object.- new user accountmanagment system

- new Imagehandler

- countries and states are configurable

- in general increased the possibility to publish/unpublish (states, country, ...)

- SEF and SSL working with Joomla.- enhanced database layout

- better performance, lower ram usage

Already known "bugs" or partly implemented features.

- manufacturer page not working.

- vendor page is not working atm.

- SEF not working.

- review not working

- coupons not working

- quantity based discounts not working

- the view "featured products" not working correctly

- some configuration settings not working/not used.

- order view has some glitches.

- only a few payment plugins are ported yet

- shipment plugins not implemented, but shippers

- migration tool not finished

For the final release we want to ensure that these features work, but maybe in different ways than in VM1.1. For example, the review and coupons may be implemented as plugins, the featured product page maybe converted in a kind of "check calculated prices of products" view, the manufacturer page is maybe just an autogenerated category only showing products of the manufacturer and so on.Of course we hope that these release shows that we are alive and that the new VirtueMart will lead the eCommerce scene into a new era and set a new standard.